Colonial legacies, fundraising difficulties as well as a structural lack of interest from many African governments towards contemporary art and culture still complicate the march towards equal representation of countries in the Venice Biennale.
These are the words of Anna Kućma, ZAM's new photo and web editor. In this magazine she guides you through the African share in what is probably the world's leading explosion of contemporary art. The good news: in the upcoming edition, opening on April 23, very tentatively, this share is increasing.
But it could be so much more convincing. There is no shortage of inspiring artists in African countries and their diasporas. How their presence would further refresh this event that draws millions of visitors! How a city that is almost deafened by the noise of suitcase wheels and hemmed in by ever-rising floods could benefit from a dose of the new perspectives and different, rebellious ideas that are kept at arm’s length with deaf ears, walls and boundless paternalism.
Open the floodgates, welcome the influx of the unthinkable and feast on the milk of dreams, as the well-chosen motto of the new Biennale goes.
ZAM Team
